Welcome to Cultoween! We’ve taken a few Halloween years off but we felt it was high time we got back into the spirit of the holiday. Since there are a finite number of Halloween-themed movies, it’s always hard to come up with a specific topic or series of films to cover. For this year’s festivities, we are using this Random Movie Generator to suggest movies to watch for our Halloween season, and then we’re going to let you know if they’re worth watching, how Halloweenie they are, and anything else we think you should know. Effectively we are putting in no values except the movie must be horror, and if we’ve already covered it we’re throwing it back. We hope you enjoy the coverage and stick with us throughout the season!
From 2012 comes a CG action horror film based on the cult horror video game franchise Resident Evil. Damnation is actually the second of a trilogy of films created by Capcom, which was preceded by Degeneration and followed by Vendetta in 2017. Here we have fan favorite protagonists Leon Kennedy and Ada Wong infiltrating a generically-named area called the Eastern Slav Republic in search of B.O.Ws (Bio-Organic Weapons) being used in a government civil war. Translation: there are Lickers, there are Plaga-infested guys, and there are multiple Mr. Xs.
Much like the Resident Evil series after its breakthrough successes with episode 2, 3, and 4, Damnation struggles to really find a solid storyline. As it stands, the film features a muddled mess of political intrigue and the pseudo-science that makes up the bio-organic engineering at the heart of companies like Umbrella Corp. There’s a lot of talk here that unfortunately makes up too much of the film, leaving the 100-minute runtime feeling bloated down with unnecessary conversations and international politics when people coming to this series want one thing: the iconic characters and demented creatures that are prevalent throughout the universe.
Luckily, Damnation also gives us a wide range of action sequences that are much more akin to the series’ exploration of action horror in Resident Evil 5 and 6. There are plenty of Lickers, some great body horror sequences with the Plaga parasites, and even a Mr. X versus Lickers battle sequence! It does seem like director Makoto Kamiya has an eye for the video games because Damnation often feels like the action sequences are lifted direct from playable ideas, even including iconic locales that evoke the sensation of exploration.
With that said, Damnation often stagnates due to its fluffy story intermingled with characters that we don’t really get to care much about. This is truly a film meant for fans, since it does feel like a one-off that could have been something like a Code: Veronica video game; but writing specifically for fans ostracizes viewers that might enjoy a less lore-heavy look at the game series without having to deal with the live-action Jovovich franchise *shudders*.
I think there is a portion of audiences who might find some nostalgia in thinking about the Resident Evil series during their Halloween festivities; I know I sure do, since a lot of my playthroughs of the games occur during the season. With that said, communist backdrops, political strife, and factory settings don’t really evoke the imagery of Samhain, so viewer experiences may vary. So with that, I’ll give this one a Maybe!
See it if you’re a fan of the series!
For those that aren’t as well versed in the Resident Evil series or have no real interest, no need to start here.
